Jeremiah 28:3

28:3 Before two years are over, I will bring back to this place everything that King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon took from it and carried away to Babylon.

Jeremiah 39:3

39:3 Then Nergal-Sharezer of Samgar, Nebo-Sarsekim, who was a chief officer, Nergal-Sharezer, who was a high official, ¹  and all the other officers of the king of Babylon came and set up quarters ²  in the Middle Gate. ³ 

Jeremiah 51:12

51:12 Give the signal to attack Babylon’s wall! ⁴ 

Bring more guards! ⁵ 

Post them all around the city! ⁶ 

Put men in ambush! ⁷ 

For the Lord will do what he has planned.

He will do what he said he would do to the people of Babylon. ⁸ 

Jeremiah 51:60

51:60 Jeremiah recorded ⁹  on one scroll all the judgments ¹⁰  that would come upon Babylon – all these prophecies ¹¹  written about Babylon.

Jeremiah 52:12

52:12 On the tenth ¹²  day of the fifth month, ¹³  in the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard ¹⁴  who served ¹⁵  the king of Babylon, arrived in Jerusalem.

¹ tn English versions and commentaries differ on the number of officials named here and the exact spelling of their names. For a good discussion of the options see F. B. Huey, Jeremiah, Lamentations (NAC), 341, n. 71. Most commentaries follow the general lead of J. Bright (Jeremiah [AB], 243) as the present translation has done here. However, the second name is not emended on the basis of v. 13 as Bright does, nor is the second Nergal-Sharezer regarded as the same man as the first and the information on the two combined as he does. The first Nergal-Sharezer is generally identified on the basis of Babylonian records as the man who usurped the throne from Nebuchadnezzar’s son, Awel-Marduk or Evil-Merodach as he is known in the OT (Jer 52:31; 2 Kgs 25:27). The present translation renders the two technical Babylonian terms “Rab-Saris” (only in Jer 39:3, 13; 2 Kgs 18:17) and “Rab-Mag” (only in Jer 39:3, 13) as “chief officer” and “high official” without knowing precisely what offices they held. This has been done to give the modern reader some feeling of their high position without specifying exactly what their precise positions were (i.e., the generic has been used for the [unknown] specific).

² tn Heb “sat.” The precise meaning of this phrase is not altogether clear, but J. Bright (Jeremiah [AB], 243) is undoubtedly correct in assuming that it had to do with setting up a provisional military government over the city.

³ tn The Hebrew style here is typically full or redundant, giving a general subject first and then listing the specifics. The Hebrew text reads: “Then all the officers of the king of Babylon came and sat in the Middle Gate, Nergal-Sharezer…and all the rest of the officers of the king of Babylon.” In the translation the general subject has been eliminated and the list of the “real” subjects used instead; this eliminates the dashes or commas typical of some modern English versions.

¹ tn Heb “Raise a banner against the walls of Babylon.”

² tn Heb “Strengthen the watch.”

³ tn Heb “Station the guards.”

⁴ tn Heb “Prepare ambushes.”

⁵ tn Heb “For the Lord has both planned and done what he said concerning the people living in Babylon,” i.e., “he has carried out what he planned.” Here is an obvious case where the perfects are to be interpreted as prophetic; the commands imply that the attack is still future.

¹ tn Or “wrote.”

² tn Or “disaster”; or “calamity.”

³ tn Heb “words” (or “things”).

¹ tn The parallel account in 2 Kgs 25:8 has “seventh.”

² sn The tenth day of the month would have been August 17, 586 b.c. in modern reckoning.

³ tn For the meaning of this phrase see BDB 371 s.v. טַבָּח 2 and compare the usage in Gen 39:1.

⁴ tn Heb “stood before.”